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Archenhold Observatory

Coordinates:52°29′09″N13°28′34″E/ 52.48583°N 13.47611°E/52.48583; 13.47611
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Archenhold Observatory
Observatory code604
LocationBerlin, Germany
Coordinates52°29′09″N13°28′34″E/ 52.48583°N 13.47611°E/52.48583; 13.47611
Altitude41 m
EstablishedSeptember 1896
Websitewww.astw.de
Telescopes
Great Refractor68 cm
Cassegrain500 mm
Coudé refractor150 mm
Astrograph120 mm
Urania Refractor12 in
Comet seeker250 mm
Newtonian250 mm
Archenhold Observatory is located in Germany
Archenhold Observatory
Location of Archenhold Observatory
Related media on Commons
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TheArchenhold Observatory(German:Archenhold-Sternwarte) was named in honour ofFriedrich Simon Archenhold,is anobservatoryinBerlin-Treptow.It houses theGroßer Refraktor(Great Refractor), which is the longest pointabletelescopein the world. It is also calledDie Himmelskanone(Celestial Cannon).

History

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Industrial Exposition

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The Great Refractor at theGreat Industrial Exposition of Berlin1896

The Archenhold Observatory began as a temporary installation at the 1896Great Industrial Exposition of Berlin.[1]At the initiative ofWilhelm Foersterand Max Wilhelm Meyer, it was intended to present scientific and astronomical knowledge to the general public. Plans for a largetelescopethatFriedrich Simon Archenholdhad been working on were invoked for this purpose. Although his plans were for a research instrument, its design was already being criticised at the time. Admittance charges at the exposition were intended to finance the construction and later relocation of the instrument. The telescope was erected in theTreptower Parkand sheltered in a wooden building that also provided exhibition space and a lecture theatre. When the industrial exposition opened on 1 May 1896, the Great Refractor was still unfinished; it began operation in September 1896. The telescope has an aperture of 68 cm (27 in) and a focal length of 21 m (69 ft); the movable mass is 130 metric tons.

Due to the late completion there was no finance to move the telescope after the exposition. At the end of 1896 the city of Berlin gave permission for the observatory to remain in Treptower Park. Archenhold, without an astronomer's salary, decided to turn the installation into apublic observatory.It was operated by a society, theVerein Treptow-Sternwarte e. V.with Archenhold as president. This is now considered the oldest and largest public observatory inGermany.

The exhibition covered themes like history of astronomy, Earth and Moon, Sun and planets, comets and meteors, stars and star clusters, instruments and optics. Observations included standard objects,lunar eclipses,cometsand theNovaCygni 1903. 23,000 visitors attended in 1897, the number rising to 60,000 by 1899 and remaining about constant until the 1930s.

New building

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In 1908, the original wooden building was demolished and on 4 April 1909 a new building was inaugurated.

On 2 June 1915,Albert Einsteingave his first public talk aboutGeneral Relativityat the observatory.[2]In 1931, Friedrich Simon Archenhold was succeeded as director by his son Günter Archenhold. Due to his Jewish ancestry, he was forced to resign in 1936. The family was expelled from the observatory; some emigrated, others ended up inNazi concentration camps.The observatory was integrated into the city's school system. DuringWorld War IIa bomb hit the southwest wing, but the Great Refractor was not severely damaged.

Observations resumed as soon as July 1945 for thesolar eclipse.Edgar Mädlow was interim director, assisted by Herbert Pfaffe.

Research of Friedrich and Günter Archenhold

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Friedrich Archenhold's first research, for which he was commissioned by Wilhelm Foerster, was aimed at developing the photographic method. Foerster himself was not an observer, but a clever scientific politician: he commissioned his assistants to test new techniques. Archenhold tested a new, short focal length astro-camera, first at the Baltic Sea, then at a station set up especially for the test in Berlin-Halensee.[3]He succeeded in obtaining further photographic evidence of the nebula atξ Persei[3](now called the "California Nebula"). After building the giant telescope, he continued his technical tests (with photographs and moving images) and astronomical observations in his new" Treptow-Observatory ".

Research reports and technical articles were published on the comets Perrine in 1897[4]and Halley in 1910,[5]a fireball[6]and noctilucent clouds.[7][8][9]The participation in the observation campaign ofNova Persei in 1901[10][11]is documented, which followed earlier similar observations.[12]The cause of novae (surface eruptions on white dwarfs incataclysmic variable stars) was still not understood at the time. Novae (unpredictably erupting stars) andvariable starsand the study of their periods were one of the most important and topical areas of research at the time.[12][13]

One publication was written in 1912 after observations of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter through the giant telescope.[14]The son of the observatory's founder, Günter Archenhold, published mainly on solar research[15][16][17][18]and the halo phenomenon.[19]He only signed his first specialist publication in 1930 (and previously with his father) with the affiliation "Treptow-Sternwarte" (Treptow Observatory).

Naming after Archenhold

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Participants of the IIIrdWorld Festival of Youth and Studentsvisit the Archenhold Observatory in August 1951

In 1946 the city of Berlin renamed the observatoryArchenhold-Sternwarte.On 1 June 1948Diedrich Wattenberg,who had been working with Archenhold, was made director. Annual visitor numbers rose from 8,000 in 1946 to 25,000 in 1949. In 1958, the Great Refractor was decommissioned, but retained as a monument of technology.

Modern equipment and extension(s) in GDR-time

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From 1959 onwards, the observatory was increasingly used for school education in physics and astronomy. To support this, in the 1960s, two further domes were erected in the grounds. A lecture theatre was also added, and in 1966 the "solar physics cabinet" (a special invention for showing the sun and its spectrum in a lecture hall) was created, which could project the Sun at 80 cm (31 in) diameter or a solar spectrum at 1.5 m length. It was an invention by the brilliant optical engineerEdwin Rolf(Rathenownear Berlin), a further development of the Jensch coelostat for didactic (display) purposes.

In November 1976, Wattenberg retired andDieter B. Herrmannwas made director of the observatory. The technical director,Eckehard Rothenbergwas in charge for all further modernisations, the construction of two planetariums and the restoration of the Great Refractor. In March 1982, the smallplanetariumin Treptow was replaced with a modern ZKP II model of the Zeiss company. 1983 saw the completion of the reconstruction of the Great Refractor, which had started in 1977. The historical instrument was then again movable and fully functional. Annual visitor numbers during the 1980s were around the 70,000. Archenhold had already suggested a large planetarium. This became reality in 1987 when theZeiss Major Planetariumwas built in theErnst-Thälmann-Park.From the beginning on, this was led by the directors of the Archenhold Observatory; Rothenberg was the leading astronomer-engineer of its construction and later, more media technicians were employed specifically for its maintenance and subordinated to the Treptow directors. In 2007, the two houses became separate departments within theGerman Museum of Technologybut were reunified in 2013, and form a single entity with the majorplanetarium and observatoryin formerWest-Berlinsince 2016.

Research 1972-1992

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In 1972, a research department for the history of astronomy was set up at the observatory, which was enriched by members of its own working group of hobby astronomers. The head of department was Dr.Dieter B. Herrmannuntil 1976. After hishabilitationin 1986, he also taught at Berlin's university and occasionally supervised doctoral theses.

On November 1, 1976, Diedrich Wattenberg retired as director after 28 years and, at his suggestion, Dieter B. Herrmann was appointed as the new director of the observatory. Research into the history of astronomy was led byJürgen Hamel,who worked at the Archenhold Observatory from 1978 to 1991.

Didacticalworks, textbooks on the subject of astronomy and astronomy-related chapters in textbooks for various natural sciences were written by Director Herrmann and his staff, led by the qualified astronomy teachers Dietmar Fürst and Oliver Schwarz (the latter later received a professorship for physics didactics at theUniversity of Siegenand headed the working group "Astronomiedidaktik" working group / education committee of theGerman Astronomical Society).

Berlin re-united

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The telescope among the buildings.

AfterGerman reunificationin 1990, the observatory came under control of the city's school administration. Significant repairs of the Great Refractor had to be carried out in 1989/1990 and 1995. As of 2018, the telescope remains operational and is available for night observing. The observatory underwent major refurbishment in 1995/1996. The exhibition was also completely revised.

Since 2002, the observatory belongs to theGerman Museum of Technology.Dieter B. Herrmann retired in 2005. The observatory was then led for a while by the head of the astronomy department of the technology museum, Klaus Staubermann. In 2009, Felix Lühning became director of the Archenhold Observatory.

Further activities

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Since 1972, the Archenhold Observatory edits its own celestial almanac "Blick in die Sternenwelt" on the basis of theNautical Almanacbut computed specifically for the coordinates of the observatory in Treptow. The editor and author was 1972 to 2014 Eckehard Rothenberg; since 2014 other members of the local hobby astronomers' club continue his work.

As a support association, the astronomers's club also relaunched and continued the Archenhold Observatory publication series after German reunification. It had to be discontinued at the beginning of the 1990s because the research department(s) was dissolved, but was re-initiated in 2000 with a popular scientific-historical work by astronomer Susanne M Hoffmann.

The physicist and amateur astronomer Jürgen Rose built aradio telescope,aspark chamberand several devices for particle counting in the observatory as part of his commitment to the association and observatory. He uses these to investigate cosmic cosmic radiation in a completely automated robotic observation program.

Equipment

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Video recording of the Great Refractor
The Great Refractor of the Archenhold Observatory

Great Refractor

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The Great Refractor was built in 1896 for theGreat Industrial Exposition of Berlin.With an aperture of 68 cm (27 in), afocal lengthof 21 m (69 ft) and a movable mass of 130 metric tons, it is considered a masterpiece of technology. The lenses were made by C. A. Steinheil & Söhne. Since 1967, the telescope is a protected monument.

Zeiss Small Planetarium

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Theplanetariumis located in an 8 m (26 ft) dome with 38 seats. In 1959 it was the first Zeiss Small Planetarium in theGDR.In 1982 it was replaced with the more modern ZKP-2 projector. In 1994 the planetarium room was refurbished.

Solar physics cabinet

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The solar physics cabinet is situated in the grounds of the observatory. It was designed and built in 1965 by Diedrich Wattenberg and Erwin Rolf. Acoelostatredirects the light from the Sun into the building. The sunlight is optionally dispersed into the spectral colours through four 60°prisms.With anH-alphafilter it is possible to observeprominencesand active regions on the Sun.

Additional telescopes

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In 1962, two observing domes were erected in the grounds north of the main building. These have diameters of 5 m (16 ft) and 3 m (9.8 ft), resp. They house a ZeissCassegrain telescope(500 mm (20 in) aperture, 7,500 mm (300 in) focal length) and a refractor withcoudé focus(150 mm (5.9 in) aperture, 2,250 mm (89 in) focal length). Two further domes on the roof of the main building house anastrograph(120 mm (4.7 in) aperture, 600 mm (24 in) focal length) and the historic Urania Refractor of 1888, which was transferred from theBerlin Urania.Two further shelters with roll-off roofs on top of the main building contain a comet seeker (250 mm (9.8 in) aperture, 1,620 mm (64 in) focal length) and aNewtonian telescope(250 mm (9.8 in) aperture, 1,978 mm (77.9 in) focal length).

See also

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References

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  1. ^Geppert, Alexander C. T. (2010),"Berlin 1896: Wilhelm II, Georg Simmel and the Berliner Gewerbeausstellung",Fleeting Cities,London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 16–61,doi:10.1057/9780230281837_2,ISBN978-1-349-30721-0,retrieved2024-02-11
  2. ^Hoffmann, Dieter (2013).Einstein's Berlin: In the footsteps of a genius.Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 83.ISBN9781421410401.
  3. ^abArchenhold, F. S. (January 1892)."Ein ausgedehnter Nebel bei ξ Persei".Astronomische Nachrichten.129(11): 153–158.Bibcode:1892AN....129..153A.doi:10.1002/asna.18921291102.ISSN0004-6337.
  4. ^Archenhold, F. S. (January 1897)."Beobachtung des Cometen 1897…(Perrine Oct. 16)".Astronomische Nachrichten.144(24): 381–382.Bibcode:1897AN....144..381A.doi:10.1002/asna.18971442406.ISSN0004-6337.
  5. ^Archenhold, Friedrich Simon (1910)."Beobachtung der Bedeckung eines Sternes durch den Kern des Halleyschen Kometen".Astronomische Nachrichten.183(15): 237–240.Bibcode:1910AN....183..237A.doi:10.1002/asna.19091831505.
  6. ^Archenhold, F. S. (January 1911)."Eine helle Feuerkugel mit doppelter Schweifbildung 1911 Sept. 20".Astronomische Nachrichten.189(20): 359–360.Bibcode:1911AN....189..359A.doi:10.1002/asna.19111892007.ISSN0004-6337.
  7. ^Archenhold, F. S. (July 1928)."Noctilucent Clouds and Unpublished Measurements of Their Velocity".Monthly Weather Review.56(7): 278–280.Bibcode:1928MWRv...56..278A.doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1928)56<278:NCAUMO>2.0.CO;2.ISSN0027-0644.
  8. ^Archenhold, Günter (January 1938)."Leuchtende Nachtwolken".Astronomische Nachrichten.266(13–14): 227–228.Bibcode:1938AN....266..227A.doi:10.1002/asna.19382661311.ISSN0004-6337.
  9. ^Archenhold, Gunter (October 1938)."Letter to the Editor".Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.64(277): 611.Bibcode:1938QJRMS..64..611A.doi:10.1002/qj.49706427706.ISSN0035-9009.
  10. ^Archenhold, F. S. (January 1901)."Beobachtungen der Nova (3. 1901) Persei".Astronomische Nachrichten.155(15): 235–238.doi:10.1002/asna.19011551505.ISSN0004-6337.
  11. ^Archenhold, Friedrich Simon (1901)."Beobachtung der Nova (3. 1901) Persei in Treptow".Astronomische Nachrichten.154(22): 409–410.Bibcode:1901AN....154..409A.doi:10.1002/asna.19001542207.
  12. ^abCopeland, Ralph (1892)."Ueber einen neuen Stern in Auriga".Astronomische Nachrichten.129(129): 75–80.Bibcode:1892AN....129...75C.
  13. ^Archenhold, Friedrich Simon (1892)."Beobachtungen des veränderlichen Sterns R Trianguli (BD. + 33°.470)".Astronomische Nachrichten.131(131): 259.Bibcode:1892AN....131..259A.
  14. ^Archenhold, F. S. (January 1912)."Der rote Fleck des Jupiter".Astronomische Nachrichten.192(7): 115–116.Bibcode:1912AN....192..115A.doi:10.1002/asna.19121920707.ISSN0004-6337.
  15. ^Archenhold, Günter (1930)."Über eine Ursache des unerwarteten Verhaltens der Streustrahlung in der Nähe des Sonnenrandes".Astronomische Nachrichten.237(19): 335–336.Bibcode:1930AN....237..335A.doi:10.1002/asna.19292371903.
  16. ^Archenhold, G. H. (1939-07-01)."The Influence of the Variability of the Mean Latitude of Sunspots on the Recurrence Tendency of Magnetic Disturbances".Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.99(9): 723–729.doi:10.1093/mnras/99.9.723.ISSN0035-8711.
  17. ^Archenhold, G. H. A. (1940-06-01)."Some Problems Concerning the Distribution of Sunspots Over the Sun's Disc".Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.100(8): 645–655.doi:10.1093/mnras/100.8.645.ISSN0035-8711.
  18. ^Archenhold, G. H. A. (1941-04-01)."The Birth Distribution of Sunspots on the Sun's Disc".Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.101(2): 66–69.doi:10.1093/mnras/101.2.66.ISSN0035-8711.
  19. ^Archenhold, G. H. (September 1944)."A Solar Halo Phenomenon".Nature.154(3909): 433.Bibcode:1944Natur.154..433A.doi:10.1038/154433a0.ISSN0028-0836.
  • Diedrich Wattenberg:Die Archenhold Sternwarte Berlin-Treptow.Berlin 1956.
  • Diedrich Wattenberg:75 Jahre Archenhold-Sternwarte.Festgabe. Berlin-Treptow 1971 (Archenhold-Sternwarte Berlin-Treptow. Vorträge und Schriften, 41).
  • Dieter B. Herrmann:100 Jahre Archenhold-Sternwarte.2. Auflage, paetec Gesellschaft für Bildung und Technik, Berlin 1996,ISBN3-89517-314-2.
  • Dieter B. Herrmann:Sterne über Treptow – Geschichte der Archenhold-Sternwarte.(herausgegeben vom Rat des Stadtbezirks Berlin-Treptow, Abteilung Kultur) Heimatgeschichtliches Kabinett, Berlin 1986.
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